PERIOD drama has always been a breeze for Colin Firth. The charismatic 48-year-old became famous worldwide, thanks to his performance as Mr Darcy in the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and hasn’t been out of work since.

Managing to combine appearances in romantic comedies (Love Actually) with more serious roles (Then She Found Me), he’s back in something which is a unique combination of the two, comic costume drama Easy Virtue. In this adaptation of Noel Coward’s 1920s play, Colin is troubled Mr Whittaker, who no longer seems to be able to remain civil to his wife (Kristin Scott Thomas). The whole family is shaken up when only son John (Ben Barnes) returns home with his rather modern American wife (Jessica Biel).

Q: Were you aware of the Noel Coward play before the film? A: No. Funnily enough, I’ve done a film adaptation of a Noel Coward play before and, in a way, it was quite a similar premise. I did a play called Relative Values on film. I think it’s not as successful as this, but Easy Virtue was a wonderful script.

I think within all the politeness and wryness and wit and trivia and flippancy of Coward is immense passion. If you think of all that champagne froth stuff he does, the silly songs that he sings – which are masterpieces, really – he also wrote Brief Encounter, you know?

Easy Virtue is gorgeous material, it’s very easy to be over-reverential of it, or be afraid of it. They can be museum pieces if you’re not careful. I didn’t want to do this film at first, because of that. I’d just been shooting Mamma Mia! and Genova at the same time and I wasn’t ready to leap into something. It got pushed back a bit and, in fact, it was more a desire to do a Stephan Elliot movie than a Noel Coward play that pulled me in. And I think that’s what we have. It’s as much Stephan’s sensibility as Coward’s.

Q: Has your process for selecting projects changed recently? A: No, because I never had a process. It’s just a series of choices. You hope it’s instinct, but then you can sometimes be polarised about something. Nothing’s ever the full package. Occasionally, they might be. The pieces can shift around and it’s a combination of things. Most of it is a gut reaction on reading. I try to just treat it as a bit of literature, not imagine what it’s like on screen, not to try myself out on it, if you like, let it be what it is. And if that hooks me, then I go back and have another look. Sometimes you know in 10 pages. Actually that’s usually!

Q: You have moved from playing the lover to playing a possible father, such as in Mamma Mia!… A: That’s life. That’s where I am. One of the few pleasures of the ageing process – and there are very few really – is the roles actually get more complex.

I look at Ben (Barnes) and I’m reminded of certain aspects of myself at the time. You really have to look for roles that have any texture when you’re in your 20s. You’ve got to survive those because the callow youth is terribly, terribly difficult. It’s terribly difficult to give it texture.

I think Ben pulls it off. I’m working with him again now on Dorian Gray and he’s addressing it. I mean, Dorian Gray’s the perfect role for someone like him because he starts off as a callow youth then turns into a homicidal mass murderer by the end of it.

I found it desperately dull being 25 as an actor. A friend of mine, an older actor, said to me, when I was that age, you know the hardest role in Shakespeare is not Hamlet or Lear, it’s Ferdinand in The Tempest, the earnest lover with no sense of humour. The older you get, the more they let you be jaded, or witty, maybe you’re bad, maybe you’re disappointed, layers of experience. There’s more to be had so, yeah, bring them on!

Q: Could you empathise with Mr Whittaker? A: Yes. Absolutely – I think anybody could. Family is complicated. From childhood to having your own, it’s complicated. There are times you want to hide from them and run from them and, in some ways, although there’s something entertaining about Whittaker standing back and making wry comments, there’s something noble about his defending Larita from the mob, the family.

Q: Talking of family, how do you get on with your Italian mother-in-law? A: My wife brought home to meet her parents, an Englishman – that’s one problem right there – nearly 10 years older, with a child, and an actor. I mean, how many strikes do you need against you, really? They were very gracious with me, but it was not a good package to sell to the in-laws, so there was a mountain to climb! I had to learn the language in order to make myself worthy.

Q: Mamma Mia! has just become the UK’s highest grossing film of all time. Do you have fond memories of filming in Greece? A: Oh, the time of our lives. That wasn’t hard. It was really obscene to be paid to have that much fun – it was wonderful. One of the moments I think I’ve come closest to death was when I was sitting with Pierce Brosnan and Stellan Skarsgard on a boat just off Skiathos looking at the Aegean, on a beautiful day. I said to them, and the producer was standing near us, ‘Do you ever feel overpaid?’ And I was nearly thrown overboard. It was just, ‘And they’re paying me? And I’m sitting here?’ That was just fun. It was a walk in the park. I’ve never done such an easy job in my life.

Q: Do you still get nervous as an actor? A: Yes. Nerves are the enemy all the way through your working life. And I think they can get worse. They haven’t for me, yet. But I’ve seen older actors go through deep crises, brilliant actors, particularly in the theatre. They said Olivier suffered a bout of nerves for 10 or 15 years, where he found it almost impossible to go on.

Ian Holm didn’t go on stage for that period of time. Apparently Ian, according to stories, turned to the audience and asked them what they were looking at! Then went and locked himself in his dressing room. I don’t know if that story is true, but I live it in my mind because I feel there but for the grace of God go I.

  • Easy Virtue is on general release now.